As may as 125 people have died till Saturday in Assam due to Japanese Encephalitis with six deaths reported on Friday from different districts of the state.
Apart from the death of one 72-year-old in Jorhat, the other deaths were reported from Chirang, Barpeta, Dima Hasao, Golaghat and Sivasagar districts.
Amid the increasing numbers in JE deaths, health officials, however, informed that with a change in the season, the number of cases reported decreasing gradually.
“From 25-30 cases per day earlier, presently the number of reported cases has come down to 8-9 per day,” said sources from the health department.
“We are hopeful that soon cases of JE will go down significantly and then wiped out completely,” the sources added.
According to the National Health Mission (NHM) July 23 report, a total of 222 deaths occurred in the state since January due to JE and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES).
The NHM report further stated that the total number of JE/AES positive cases during this period was 1,569.
AES and JE gripped several districts from Assam, including Jorhat, Golaghat, Dibrugarh, Lakhimpur and Kamrup.
A union team was dispatched to Assam on June 30 to review the total reported cases in the state.
The Assam government, after the initial cases of JE, were reported, made efforts to spread awareness about the virus.
Assam’s 27 districts were covered under the vaccination programme against JE for children up to 15 years.